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• whistler
  whistler

  noun

  a person or thing that whistles.
• Whistler
  Whistler

  noun

  James (Abbott) McNeill 1834–1903, U.S. painter and etcher, in France and England after 1855.

whistler

¹ American  

[hwis-ler, wis-] / ˈʰwɪs lər, ˈwɪs- /

noun

• whistlers
  plural

1. a person or thing that whistles.

2. something that makes a sound like a whistle.

   The windstorm was a 60-mile-an-hour whistler.

3. any of various birds whose wings whistle in flight, especially the goldeneye.

4. thickhead.

5. a large marmot, Marmota caligata, of mountainous northwestern North America, closely related to the woodchuck.

6. a horse afflicted with whistling.

7. Radio. a whistling sound heard on a radio, a type of interference caused by distant lightning.

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Whistler ² American  

[wis-ler, hwis-] / ˈwɪs lər, ˈʰwɪs- /

noun

1. James (Abbott) McNeill 1834–1903, U.S. painter and etcher, in France and England after 1855.

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whistler ¹ British  

/ ˈwɪslə /

noun

1. a person or thing that whistles

2. radio an atmospheric disturbance picked up by radio receivers, characterized by a whistling sound of decreasing pitch. It is caused by the electromagnetic radiation produced by lightning

3. any of various birds having a whistling call, such as certain Australian flycatchers and the goldeneye See also thickhead

4. any of various North American marmots of the genus Marmota, esp M. caligata ( hoary marmot )

5. vet science a horse affected with an abnormal respiratory noise, resembling whistling

6. informal a referee

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Whistler ² British  

/ ˈwɪslə /

noun

1. James Abbott McNeill. 1834–1903, US painter and etcher, living in Europe. He is best known for his sequence of nocturnes and his portraits

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• Whistlerian
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• whistlers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of whistler

before 1000; Middle English; Old English hwistlere. See whistle, -er ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

whistler Whistler whistlers

Those are the occupational hazards of a professional whistler.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026

The Celtic boss was not at all happy with Beaton's VAR performance in their recent loss at Hearts, but insists he has no issue with the choice of whistler at Ibrox.

From BBC ● Apr. 7, 2024

Your character in "The Big Door Prize" is a whistler among other things.

From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2023

Last summer, while recording with Molly Lewis, the popular whistler, at the Sound Factory in Hollywood, Rogê met Brenneck, one of the studio’s resident producers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2022

Ellis Carter had been the chief Flipper singer and whistler on one particular Wednesday.

From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia

We have six homes: In California, we own two contemporary houses in Malibu, one house in Beverly Hills and two in Hollywood; and there’s one in Whistler, B.C.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

She’d been in the midst of writing a different book, a novel about a Wyoming rancher and her horse, Whistler, but it wasn’t clicking.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026

There’s a stunning group of watercolors, seemingly breathed onto the paper, by Joseph Mallord William Turner, fragile etchings by Whistler and dazzling, light-struck waterside scenes by Sargent.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2025

The 2025 event in Vancouver and Whistler, is expected to attract 550 competitors from up to 25 nations.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2024

The latest novelty in this line has been the suit for damages brought against Mr. Ruskin by Mr. James Whistler, the American painter, and decided last week.

From Views and Reviews by Henry James

“It’s pretty rare what she’s up to, there aren’t a lot of whistlers in the Rolodex you can call,” said Thomas Brenneck, Lewis’ longtime collaborator who produced “On the Lips.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2024

Intriguingly, the scientists report that the whistlers usually exchanged whistles with second-order allies with whom they were weakly bonded, rather than calling to a best buddy.

From Science Magazine ● Mar. 24, 2022

She added, “We’re a whooping and hollering crowd in Philadelphia now,” and described baseball whistlers and shouts from the audience.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 2, 2015

They take turns reading the text and whistling until all the whistlers have taken a solo.

From New York Times ● Jun. 20, 2013

They don't hurt anybody, most of them, and maybe they're secretly all terrific whistlers or something.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger